Switched on Pop - The Jonas Brothers' Yacht Rock Revival

Episode Date: May 9, 2023

After nearly two decades as a band the Jonas Brothers are staking their claim to a magnum opus by calling their next album, quite simply, The Album (out May 12). The project follows the success of their 2019 comeback project Happiness Begins — which blended polished pop sounds with ‘70s funk breaks and produced the No. 1 single “Sucker” — with a focus on the smooth sounds of yacht rock. Switched On pop co-host Charlie Harding spoke with Nick, Joe and Kevin Jonas in March 2023, during their five night broadway run, in anticipation for the release of The Album.   Songs Discussed Jonas Brothers - Wings, Waffle House, Montana Sky, Summer Baby, Before the Storm Daryl Hall & John Oates - She's Gone, Wings Kenny Loggins - Meet Me Half Way Steely Dan - Reelin' In The Years Stevie Wonder - Higher Ground Michael Jackson - The Way You Make Me Feel, Leave Me Alone The Doobie Brothers - Takin' It to the Streets, Minute By Minute Thundercat, Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins - Show You The Way Michael McDonald - I Keep Forgettin' Steve Miller Band - Fly Like An Eagle Eagles - Take It Easy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you're tired of endless scrolling to figure out where to eat, same. I'm Stephanie Wu, editor-in-chief of Eater. We've just launched the new-ish and way better Eater app. It has all the restaurants we love, gives you personalized picks wherever you are, and serves up smarter search results just for you. You can find my list of the best places for martinis and fries in New York City. And save your favorite spots, share lists, follow editors, and book right in the app. the Eater app at Eaterapp.com. It's free for iOS users. Welcome to Switchdown Pop. I'm

songwriter Charlie Harding. And I'm musicologist Nate Sloan. Nate, this week, we're starting with a question sent to us from one of our listeners. Bring it on. Hey, Switchdown Pop. This is Michael calling in. I'm curious if you guys have a take on the resurgence of yacht rock in pop music in the last few years. I grew up listening to this stuff because my dad loved it in the late 70s and early 80s and you know we used to listen to the likes of christopher cross chicago the duby brothers and it just seems like lately whether it's charlie pooth jacob collier the jonas brother's new song waffle house these duby inspired plucky pianos and synths and and steady drum beats just seem to be coming back and you know sonically in pop music and i'd kind of love your take on it and kind of why it's happening

and what exactly makes this yacht rock sound such an earworm? Great question. Yacht rock. I love a duby as an adjective. Duby, dubious. Duby-like. Duby-inspired. I just broke my brain with that one.

So yacht rock. Do you know what yacht rock is, Nate? Well, I have to say, I know the term. I know the bands Michael is referring to. But when it comes to like the term yacht rock, where does this period begin? Where does it end? What are the sonic hallmarks?

Where did the name come from? I have no answers. Okay, Yacht Rock. Let's get to the bottom of this. First of all, Yacht Rock is not a genre from its time period, but rather a parody made up in the early 2000s in a web series of the same name, Yacht Rock, that aired on Channel 101 about the fictitious lives of smooth rock stars. Oh, hi.

I'm Hollywood Steve. You caught me relaxing in my music nook. From 1976 to 1984, the radio airwigs were dominated by really smooth music, also known as yacht rock. These yacht rockers docked a remarkable fleet of number one hits, and every song has a story behind this. This very DIY series coins the term yacht rock. It may be kind of adjacent to the pejorative term dad rock, and it focuses on this style of music from the mid-70s to roughly the mid-80s of soft rock by artists like Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Hollin-Ots, Toto, the Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, and even some of Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder's catalog. And it's this sort of made-up genre that describes a style of crystalline, perfect production,

lush, jazzy chords, a relaxing vibe. and sometimes an overtly commercial sound that was long-limbasted and is now resurgent with younger audiences. Since the web series premiered, acts like Thundercat have capitalized on a resurgent interest in Yacht Rock, even performing with Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins on his song, Show You the Way. It's interesting how I feel like Michael McDonald's unique voice is both. being celebrated there and also kind of a little tongue in cheek, you know? It's like... Yeah, yeah.

It's, that's an interesting legacy. He's even gone on the record to say that he is thankful for this yacht rock label because it has helped bring back his career. I thought it was hilarious when I first saw it. It was, you know, don't worry. You know, when your music becomes less relevant, your pathetic comic value might be of some worth, you know. But it's fun. no one's more amazed than I think myself and my contemporaries are that we're still working, and we're still out there playing music.

If you are enjoying the sound, Nate, you could get more Yacht Rock by going to Spotify where their playlist Yacht Rock has over a million likes, or you could listen to Sirius XM, which has Channel Yot Rock 311. The interest in Yacht Rock is arguably at its height. Google Trends shows that every single. summer, there is a peak of yacht rock interest. As people want to have that smooth, summary vibe, perhaps they're getting ready to go out on their yachts. They're yachts of the mind. And this summer, it looks like on Google Transit, we may be approaching peak yacht rock. Do you have

an operating theory for why this sound is working right now? Well, if you're going to put me on the spot, perhaps I would say that the, some of the elements that you talked about, the complex jazzy harmonies, the kind of smooth mid-tempo grooves, these connect to modern listeners who have been listening to samples of this music and genres like hip-hop for decades. Yeah, I feel like the best example is, uh, Warren G's regulate, which samples Michael McDonald's. I keep forgetting. I'm tweaking into a whole new era.

G-Fong, step to this. The rhythm is the baby. And are maybe hearing it as a sort of organic antidote to some of the more programmed and synthesized music that dominates the contemporary Billboard Hot 100. But I'm just making this up as I go along. So what insights might you have, Chuck, after ruminating on the yacht rock phenomena? Maybe another explanation would be the 40-year itch, a term coined by New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik back in 2012 to explain the success of Mad Men in the 2000s. he says that the prime site of nostalgia is always whatever happened or is thought to have happened in the decade between 40 and 50 years past because according to him pop culture though performed by the young is often dictated by the older gatekeepers who are largely 40 somethings and that they have this longing for this four decade interval because it exists in the time just before they were born when their parents,

who are youthful and in love. And Gopnik calls it the Edenic period preceding the fallen state recorded in our actual memories. He's very, very poetic about it. But I think more than just the 40-year nostalgic itch, there, as you pointed out, are musical reasons that this era of music sounds compelling at this moment. And I thought maybe we could listen to a case study and our listener, Michael, brought up the Jonas Brothers. When I heard their single wings, it brought me right into Yacht Rock territory. You give me love. I feel it.

I feel like I ran through the ceiling, the ceiling. The Jonas Brothers go Yot Rock. I mean, I'm hearing it. I mean, the very first thing we hear feels like a characteristic of Yacht Rock, that's that electric piano. I have a feeling you've dug into this, Charlie. Why does that timbre of that electric piano scream yacht rock to me? What is it? I mean, electric pianos are just very popular in this era.

And I think from chord one, we are getting heavy hollow-n-oots vibes. Hall-and-Oates vibes. Okay, okay. So here's Wings. And you could take almost any hollow-n-o-n-s song, but let's listen to She's Gone. There's that electric piano. But it's not just the piano. It's even the melody at the beginning of Wings.

Do you know Private Eyes by Daryl Hall and John Oates? Check it out again. Heavy Hall on Oates vives. Heavy Hall in Oates, yeah. Okay, so we've got Hall & Oats covered, but this song plays like a mash-up playlist of Yacht Rock. Let's keep on going. Let's.

You mentioned keys. We've got some great keyboard feel, just a second further into Wings. That fantastic funky is very reminiscent I would say of C.V. Wonder's higher ground. And it's got the groove of the way you make me feel

off of Michael Jackson's bad. The vocal styling on wings is very reminiscent of Michael as well. And as Wings continues and the vocal harmony soar We get a meeting of the minds of like Kenny Loggins Meet Me Halfway Collaborated on a web series with Steely Dan's Reeling in the Years There are so many nods to this era of music You can even hear it deep in the effects tracks on Wings

Like, check out this delay line. Yeah, can you say that one more time? That's the one. Yeah, that's the one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's an instant nostalgia connection for me to Steve Miller bands, File like an Eagle. Exactly, exactly. Cool.

So you pointed out that a number of these kinds of sounds have happened. Oh, sorry, you wanted to say, okay, sorry, go ahead. Yes, yes. You pointed out that a number of these sounds have been deep sampled in the world of hip-hop. What else about the yacht rock vibe? Do you think works in this moment? Well, there's that element I mentioned earlier the way this sound of yacht rock kind of separates itself from a lot of the more digital textures that you encounter in top 40 pop in 2023. We have organic instruments. We have complex linear harmonies. It has that nostalgia to it. But this is also very much a song from 2023 to me. Like, it's very modern at the same time.

It sounds very like 2023. What is that? Why does it still have that contemporary flavor? You know, I actually think we could probably get to the bottom of what's up with this contemporary yacht rock thing because the Jonas brothers are releasing their sixth studio album this week. It's simply called The Album. It's produced by the acclaimed artist John Bellion. And I have the chance to talk to all three brothers, Nick, Joe, and Kevin Jonas.

So how about I ask them, what's up with the sound? Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait. That's very exciting, Charlie. I'm eager to hear from the Freres Jonas. But I also have a bit of a personal stake in this. Because you may recall some years ago, I wrote. article for the New York Times about the return of funk in popular music. Yep.

And I cited this drum break from the Jonas Brothers song, Sucker, performed by Homer Steinweiss, incredible session drummer. And I said, listen to this James Brown inspired drum break on this Jonas Brothers song. This is telling us that funk is back. I remember you feeling so excited about this article. And then the YouTuber Rick Beato, who does music commentary and has millions of followers, decided to make a video and completely rip your argument apart. Yes, it was a very discouraging moment in my musicalogical career as I was pilloried by the

Beato stands for my lack of perceived funkiness. So for me, there would be a powerful redemption arc here. Yeah. If you could ask the Jonas Brothers a simple question. Okay. That would give me some much needed closure. What's that? Are the Jonas Brothers funky?

Okay. I'll see what I can do. I appreciate it, Chuck. Maria, you have a podcast now and you need to start acting like it. What's the first step as a podcaster? Well, you have to ask lots of questions. I'm Maria Sharpova, and I'm hosting a new podcast called Pretty Tough. Every week, I'm sitting down with trailblazing women at the top of their game to discuss

ambition, work ethic, and the ups and downs that come on the path to achieving greatness. I have a few pretty tough questions for you. Okay. Ready? Do not sugarcoat something for me. No, no. We'll dive into their stories and get valuable insights from top executives, actors, entrepreneurs, and other individuals who have inspired me so much in my own journey. Pretty tough is your front row seat to the women who have demonstrated the power in being unapologetic in their pursuits.

I hope you'll join us. New episodes drop Wednesdays on YouTube or in your favorite podcast app. Thanks, Nick, Joe, Kevin. Thank you for being on Switched on Pop. Yeah, thank you for having us. Of course, thanks for doing this. So, Nick, starting from the top, the album suggests an era of album-oriented, band-driven music. What does it mean for you all?

I think for us, this album was really about putting something together that sounded like what coming to one of our shows is like. at its core, you know, we're a band and it's band of music. So when we first sat with John Belion, talked about what we wanted to do, what we wanted to sound like, and what we wanted to say. And we mentioned that to him,

and he was thinking the same thing. So it was fun to open that up and then pull out, you know, some of the influences that our dad raised us on, Bee Gees, the band America. Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder.

and really lean into that late 60-70 sound. He played us a couple kind of early starts that he had put together that were spot on to the sonic quality and textures we wanted to bring to the table, but also emotionally. Okay, so I have to like double check, but I went on Billboard Hot 100 yesterday, and I don't think there was a single band. That's not always the case, but the band-oriented music is relatively rare in pop music at this moment. Why for you do you want to continue to work as a band? And how does it affect your creative process? It's an interesting thing. There's no bands on the hot one.

That's interesting. No, they fly in and out. But at the moment, I did a quick count. I was like, I don't think there was one. Yeah, even when we released, when we were getting up to release, Sucker. Yeah, Joe. I remember having a conversation because on like the top 20 of playlists, our pop playlist, it was all hip-hop and kind of solo acts of like you're saying.

It wasn't really bands. and now even where we're at as a band, we feel stronger together. I think it's fun to do the outside stuff, solo music, DNCE, and come back together and feel like we can bring all these different influences and genres that we've been able to kind of tiptoe in and out of together and bring something stronger.

And Belion really was kind of the helpful, I guess, wizard to come in and kind of like stir the pot and figure out how we're going to do this in where we're at in the music industry now, where it's heavily driven by solo acts and hip hop and some rock and stuff where it's just like kind of over the map, especially on playlisting or billboard. So it's, I guess we don't try to obsess over it too much. We just get in the studio, try to feel what's right and go from there. I want to dive into the music and you talked about the references that you were drawing from,

especially from your father's records. This is not loop-based music. This is band-oriented music. There are rich, complex harmonies, chords that go in places that you, don't usually hear on the charts today, maybe outside of the R&B charts. Let's go through a few songs, a couple of the singles. But first, I want to begin with the song, Montana Skies. My understanding is this is sort of the origin of the album? It was, yeah. How does this sound come together? Yeah, we first heard this song when we met with John to discuss kind of like where things in our minds should go and also working with him. And he kind of came in and said, I kind of have this vision and an understanding of like what I think could be the thing. And this is the first song he

actually kind of came in the room with as an idea as a concept. And we just kind of instantly felt like it was right where we wanted to be is all the references. We gave our team and who we are without him knowing it. So it was kind of like a very mind meld moment. And it just felt so right that we cut it that day. What are some of the sounds that are like the signature sonics that you're attaching to? What are you hearing in that? I think, yeah, Nick. You know, one of the references that we all spoke about was the Eagles, a band that obviously we all love.

And specifically the harmonies. You know, we're not a country act by any means. But I think because we sing a lot of three-part harmonies, the records end up tending to sound that way. And so throughout our discography, there are these different moments where, kind of leans country. But one of the rules for this time around was, how do we do the pop version of the three and five-part harmonies at times? And so Montana Sky was perfect because it kind of allowed for us to lock in those harmonies

set against just great acoustic guitars, drums, and bass vibe that feels more post-Malone in its delivery. Yeah, it still sounds very contemporary. Yeah, I just like the fact that you've got the, you know, organic instruments, but the verse and pre-chorus melody could just as easily be something to hear on a post-malone record. And then the chorus is like an Eagles vibe. Yeah. I like that in the chorus, I feel like the vocal melodies are sort of holding still against all these chord changes underneath that sort of give a different context. So much movement and the 12 string underneath there with the strings.

And then just the air it gives, but also the bright sound is what really drew me to it immediately. It was just like, this just feels like home. The song is literally traveling from place to place. And I feel like the music matches the message in that way. Very cool. When I had the opportunity to hear wings, when it was first coming out, I was listening to it my whole team. And we put this on, and we just like jaw dropped. I have not heard anything like this on a contemporary pop record.

That's refreshing. And that's kind of why we wanted to lead with that song. It's a good introduction to what the body of work will take you through a journey. And hopefully something you haven't heard. in a while. It starts with vocals, starts with Nick's vocal. And it kind of, no pun intended here, but it soars vocally. So you can say there's some like Michael vocals. And then all of a sudden it feels queen. And then like it has like this soaring element of again three part harmony where I think there is a nod to some BG's and like I guess Journey Americana the band. And like Stevie Wonder

with Worley, like all of it, you know. And then it's rhythmic, so it doesn't feel sleepy. And it's quick. It's only like a minute or two minutes or something. I'm not even sure how two seconds less than two minutes or something. Usually when people hear it for the first time, they're like, where's the rest of it? And we'll see, you know, maybe on the road we'll add to it. But it's short and sweet.

And I think that's what we wanted. We wanted to kind of introduce. It's like a trailer to our album, essentially. Yeah, it felt like an overture to me in that kind of way. I almost expected it to be song number one. I feel like it's also in that era of pop music, it wasn't uncommon to have, sort of like interludey songs that maybe don't have a typical verse pre-corrhors, like, and repeats three times.

So it feels appropriate. Let's move and talk about Waffle House. This is a really fun song. I'm catching some like very big hollow-n-oots vibes, even some like Olivia Newton-John. But I'd love to hear about where is Waffle House coming from? What is the song speaking to? It definitely has some great moments of your relationship I'm hearing. Yeah, so one of the things that we wanted to do on this album, which we haven't really done in the past, is open up the sphere of topics that we're talking about from beyond just romantic relationships and love in that sense.

But to our brotherhood and fatherhood and other themes that are big in our lives right now. And we were reflecting on, you know, a number of things in the whole process from a lyric perspective. But we had a system in place where we would text John and the team working here in New York while we were all kind of in different places traveling and doing things. Some titles or lyrics that came to our minds and just kind of kept an open flow with it. Because again, we're three individuals who make up this band. And so our lives now are kind of all over the map. Yeah, you're a triangle around the country. You're not even the same place.

Yeah, it's not as simple as, okay, we're going to be in the studio today from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. to write three songs or whatever. But it's just taking a different shape. So there's a text thread, and basically Joe sends out a message just says Waffle House's title, to which they think, he's kidding, he encircles back and gives the context. And the context is that Waffle House is more of an idea in our minds and an actual place in the context of the song. And that's because it represents a place that for us, when we were in the early days of touring and we were teenagers, we were not old enough to go and have a drink at a bar after to decompress. You go to a diner.

We'd go to a diner. And we were on the road already on the bus, so we had to go somewhere. And so we'd stop in at a Waffle House or wherever was our alternative to a bar and have those, you know, conversations. And it really was the foundation for our relationship as brothers outside of the work that we were doing together. And so, you know, then you throw in some of the references that you mentioned, hollow notes. I think there's definitely, you know, some Doobie brothers in there for sure. I think there was a few moments throughout, you know, the process of making the whole album where different songs kind of raised their hand as the favorite. moment between the three of us. But this one from day one has been one of my favorites. I think it

embodies a chapter in our journey that's incredibly personal. And hopefully by being that personal is then relatable on a more universal way and scale. You're dropping a song with the album, which feels like it's definitely fishing for some summer vibes. You've got summer baby. I think leans in a slightly different direction than the other songs we've spoken about. Summer baby is just such a feel good. Yeah, Kevin. I think we went on a journey with the song too. We worked on the song and made it sound and feel the way it does, and you have that beautiful high-strung guitar,

the acoustic to start the whole feel. And it just like sets you instantly on the beach. I feel like late night, just kind of hanging like around the campfire, like doing it. It's definitely not a kumbaya song. It's just like a feel good. Barbecue music. It's barbecue music, for sure.

That's a great way to say it. Thank you, Nick. It's just funny how we go on a journey too, just like you do on this album, sonically. So, yeah, we're putting you in the summer, in this moment, right? And I think that that's the idea. You talked about like there are these different vibes and we've established that they are a bit unusual for what, kind of like where the sound of pop music has been maybe of the last 10 years, though I think some of the sounds you're

using. 70s yacht rock went from being not cool to very cool. You have songs about sailing. Like there are some yacht rock vibes in a very positive way. You mentioned the Doobie Brothers. This is cool music now. Or maybe we're just all three of us in our 30s or all four of us in our 30s. I think that they're, you know, by way of streaming, there's a real discovery happening of that era and music and not the visuals that we looked at and thought were, you know, cheesy or corny, whatever. But we actually listened to the records and we're like, God, these are good. And it's been fun for me because I'm such a fan of that era and Toto and all of it. Actually, fun fact, we made our first album with John Fields, our self-titled album in Jeff Piccaro's house.

that he used to live in, and drummer of Toto, and recorded in his studio house that was on the house. But the music is different. Like that era of music, some of the things you're referencing are harmonically very different. The song structures are often different, the way that they're transitioning between things are different. I'm curious, from a songwriting point of view,

how did you have to adapt to sort of fit this vibe? I think it was leaning into where we go naturally, vocally. Joe's got a very high register and powerhouse, tenor voice that at times, I think, is very similar to the way in which sting or others from that era deliver a vocal. Whereas I tend to live more in sort of the lower tenor range, a bit breather, and sort of more on the R&B soul side.

And I think knowing that after making happiness began, and kind of finding what felt really good to us and, I hate to use this word, but juicy vocally, it led a lot of the melodies. So even on like Sail Away, the one you mentioned, those sort of pinging. moments where we can like kind of tap each other in and out with different vocal approaches. I think is maybe our dad had like a master plan all along we were growing up like, you know, sort of- Playing us these albums, yeah. But he played us a lot of music where there was multiple lead singers in a band, which is what we have

and what makes, I think, these moments where we're able to switch on and off from each other so fun. You all are at the center of one of the biggest controversies in my life, the co-host of my show, My friend Nate Sloan is a musicologist at the Thornton School of Music at USC. Wow. And he wrote a New York Times op-ed titled The Glorious Return of Funk. And it was this really beautiful, animated visual thing that they did on the website. It also appeared in print.

And he leads with the song Sucker and talking about how the drum break, which I think Homer Steinweiss is playing that from the Bab Kings. He says that the drum break is a drum break of stupefying, funkying proportions. I remember this. We loved this. Wonderful. So a few weeks later, one of the biggest YouTube music influencers decides to post a video, sort of questioning Nate's musicology background and saying why the Jonas Brothers sucker is not funky.

This guy was talking about the return of funk, and it was about the Jonas Brothers, the song Sucker. And I thought, what? Nate Sloan, the professor, when the professor in the New York Times article says, one of the most ludicrous things. The track breaks down to just two instruments, a whistled melody and a drum break of stupefyingly funky proportions.

He calls us a drum break of stupefingly funky proportions. And he makes a, if you will, very boomer argument, which is like, because this song is recorded to a clicker. track and there's like quantization applied, it cannot be funky. When I hear it, the first time I'm listening to it, I'm like, well, I still like quantized. I'm about turning to click on and you can hear it. Being funky is actually not about sounding like a machine and having perfect time. It's actually being funky.

There's a whole world of people who love to try to like use the science of whatever to prove their taste. You play too click. You can't be funky. I love it. What do you have to say to folks who want to invalidate you all as musicians? Go ahead. Nick. I mean, that's my answer.

I've never claimed to be a musical genius, but the person saying that they are, good luck. It's a tough road ahead, my friend. Yeah, there's somebody else going to fight you on that mountain. Yeah, so even to the point you just made, I have 10 stories and references that come to my brain about getting the chance to collaborate with some of the fungiest people I've ever met. John Fields, who produced our...

self-titled album a little bit longer and lines, vines and trying times. And he also produced my side project in terms of the administration is from Minneapolis, Minnesota, which is the funkiest city in the world. Some folks in Ohio might be questioning that. Yeah, well, I would say Minneapolis is the funkiest city in the world. Very cool. You stay in the studio. Exactly. You want to live in there. And I would say in every session I had with these funky individuals, there was click track involved which is pretty funny but no I think it's interesting

it's like we've kind of had a whole journey in relationship with this idea of people trying to invalidate us as musicians and even at times really been affected by the noise and tried to make creative strides to prove ourselves as musicians

and this was going back before the band broke up and then got back together I think there was real freedom for us though when we got back together as a band where we felt like we don't really have anything to prove to anyone that's never going to approve of us anyway like we have so much in our discography that they could look at and and you know dismiss that it's okay like you'd go ahead and spend your time doing that we're just going to keep doing what we love to do it's a really freeing feeling I think that most artists would say anytime you're chasing the validation of others you're going to live a really unhappy life.

Can the Jonas Brothers be funky? Yes, I think anybody can be funky, as long as there's a really great click track, keeping you in time. I just have to say that as much as you just said about the lack of importance of being externally validated, I now feel extremely externally validated. Thank you all very much for that.

What are you all wanting to present at this stage in your career, Nick? I think that it's a little connected to the question you asked before about validation. It's we have truly incredible fans who have supported us at various stages of our life and career and even at times where I feel like

maybe our artistic vision was a little confused I'm talking about our album lines, Vines and Trying Times when I say this, but just, you know, missteps along the way that we acknowledge. And now that our fans wear it as a badge of honor we're singing it in this week. So with the more than 10,000 hours of experience

that we have together, let's call it 20 or 30 at this point, we feel like we're in the best position as creators and as artists to present our best work, which is why we wanted to call this album the album. If you're going to look at all of them, this is the one that Joe said this. I'm stealing his thing, but that we would send up into space and say, this is the Jonas Brothers, this is the album. As they send pictures of people smiling, like if we were lucky enough to be involved in any of that,

that they send music to space, they could send the Jonas Brothers, the album. We could not scrap the others, but this is a good representation. of who we are. We have so much gratitude that we still are able to do this after almost 20 years. I'm just happy to be here. Thank you so much for spending time with me. I really appreciate it. Thanks so much. Get it. It's fun. Thank you very much. All right, Nate, how do you feel? Do you feel validated? Redeemed? I mean, that was very emotional for me to listen to, honestly, Charlie. That seals a long-standing psychological wound that I've had. If you had told me, you know, know, 20 years ago that I would be getting career validation from the Jonas Brothers talking about funk and quantization.

I would have been like, what are you talking about? And yet, here we are. I feel renewed. We are cosmically connected now, me and the Jonas Brothers as a result of this kerfuffle. Let the record show that if you come for musicologist Nate Sloan, wait two years and he will go and muster his army, Jonas Brothers, and fight back. Yeah. Now I'll just send them a text whenever, you know, something happens. They'll come riding in on their white horse and save me. At least that's how it's going to go down in my head.

To a beautiful playlist of some yacht rock music. Switched on Pop is produced by Rihanna Cruz, engineered by Brandon McFarland, edited by Art Chung, illustrations by Iris Gottlieb, community management by Abby Barr. Nashat Kerwa is the executive producer, and were a member. of Vulture and the Vox Media Podcast Network. Nate, quick fact check before we go. When I recorded with the Jonas Brothers, I didn't see any bands on the Hot 100.

But today, as of this release, there's a few, like Old Dominion at number 88. And there's a number of regional Mexican bands like Grupo Frontera and Eslaban Armato who have songs that are collaborations with other bands or solo acts. And just before we go, one more interesting trivia about the Hot 100.

There's a group who didn't break the top 10 until they'd been in the game for about 20 years. They're on their fourth studio album. They are one of my favorite groups of all time. It's Daft Punk. It wasn't until 2013's Get Lucky with Forel Williams. The Daft Punk broke the top 10. And Daft Punk are going to be the subject of our next four episodes.

We're doing a mini-series called Listening to Daft Punk, going album by album, to look at how Daff Punk captured our collective fascination and anxiety with robots. Check it out next Tuesday. And until then, thanks for listening.